Spinner shoe

ABSTRACT

Shoes with wheel spinners are disclosed. The shoes are fabricated with circular indicia that look like the wheels from a car. The wheels have spokes or other similar wheel emblems that turn or spin while the person is walking and or standing. Sensors located within the shoes turn the motion of the wheels on and off. A switch located on the shoe sets the rotational direction of the show or each wheel located on the shoe. Each shoe contains as few as one wheel to as many as four or more. Lights are present on one or more of the wheels to identify motion of the spinners. The lights can turn in the same or different direction as the spinners. The spinners can be entirely made with lighted bars that illuminate in order around the central hub of the wheel to simulate the spinner turning.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to provisional application Ser. No.60/597,512 filed Dec. 12, 2005.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to shoes with cosmetic styling. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to shoes with wheels locatedon one or more sides of the shoes that simulate the appearance of wheelsof a car. When the person is walking the wheels turn to simulate wheelspinners that are placed on the wheels of a car.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Shoes were originally made to protect a person's feet from objects thatcan cause harm to a person's feet. Over the years shoes have evolved notonly to provide protection from the ground but also to create a fashionstatement about the user. The fashion statement can include themanufacturer of the shoes or the style of the shoes. Shoes are also madeto provide cosmetic functions and may have details such as spinningitems to show motion and lights that provide visual motion.

US D495,470 issued to Robert L. Schellinger on Sep. 7, 2004 shows a shoewith the appearance of a car. While this patent shows a shoe with theappearance of a car, the wheels do not show the motion or turning whenthe wearer is walking or moving. It further does not provide lighting toilluminate the wheels of the shoes.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,614 issued to Losef Farberov on Apr. 17, 1984disclose a shoe with roller shaped wheel portions located on the bottomsole of the shoe. While this patent shows roller elements located on thesole of the shoe, the roller elements do not electrically turn basedupon motion of the person walking, nor do they provide illumination toshow motion of the wheels.

US 2004/0,159,022 published to Quin Winford et al. on Aug. 19, 2004discloses footwear with a remote control. The remote control starts andstops the rotation of wheels that are located on the sides of the shoe.While this patent covers shoes with wheels located on the sides of shoe,the motion of the wheels is not controlled by the user walking. Thepatent also does not include illumination located on or around the wheelelements that further enhance the appearance of motion on the shoes.

US 2005/0,223,601 published to Solomon Dabah on Oct. 13, 2005 disclosesa shoe with a spinner element placed on the side of a shoe. While thispublished application discloses a spinner element located on the side ofa shoe, it only shoes one spinner element and does not provide controlfor the direction of rotation of the spinner. The published applicationfurther does not disclose illumination elements placed in or around thespinner element to enhance the appearance of motion of the spinnerelement.

What is needed is a shoe with at least one spinner element that providesthe appearance of spinners that are found on cars. The ideal spinnerwould further include lighting elements that enhance the appearance ofthe spinner turning. The shoe would also include one or more sensors todetermine if the shoe is on a user, if the person is walking or standingand control for the direction of rotation of the spinner element(s). Theproposed spinner shoes provide this solution by providing a shoe withspinner elements, lighting elements, and sensors to control the motionof the spinner and lighting elements.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the spinner shoes to provide shoes with one or morespinner elements in the shoes to provide an appearance that is similarto the spinner elements that are found on the wheels of a car. Thesespinner elements provide an attraction element to the shoes that makethem stand out when compared to other shoes.

It is another object of the spinner shoes to provide lighting for thespinners where the lighting exists around the spinner element. Thespinner element can also be simulated using multiple lighting elementsthat are illuminated in order to provide an appearance of rotational orlinear motion of the shoes.

It is another object of the spinner shoes to provide control of thespinner elements that can control the direction of the spinner element.The shoes can be fabricated with multiple spinner elements and thedirection of each spinner element is controllable for clockwise orcounter-clockwise rotation.

It is another object of the spinner shoes that they include sensors, todetermine if a person is walking and how fast they are walking. Thesensors can change the speed of the spinners and the direction ofrotation of the spinners based upon information from the sensors. Eachspinner may include a switch to set the direction of rotation of thespinner.

It is another object of the spinner shoes to provide spinners located onthe sides, and or the top of the shoe. When spinners are located in thesides of a shoe they can be seen from people located next to a personwalking by. When the spinners are locate on the top of the shoes thespinners can be seen in motion by the wearer and by people standing infront of the wearer. A spinner can also be located on the back of theshoe to provide spinning motion on the back of the shoe that is visiblewhen a person is walking away.

It is another object of the spinner shoes for the speed of the rotationto be adjustable. The speed of rotation can be set by a user or can beautomatically adjusted based upon detection of the movement speed of theuser.

It is another object of the spinner element to place the element onother products that a person wears such as a cap, pin, wristband, orbelt to provide an array of clothing articles that provide a simulatedspinner appearance.

It is still another object of the spinner shoes and ancillary spinnerproducts to provide promotion and or advertising of a company, sportsteam or event by using the spinner with lighting to highlightinformation on the shoes or ancillary spinner products.

Various objects, features, aspects, and advantages of the presentinvention will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription of preferred embodiments of the invention, along with theaccompanying drawings in which like numerals represent like components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an isometric view of a preferred embodiment of the spinnershoes showing multiple spinner elements placed on the side, front andback of a shoe.

FIG. 2 shows a side sectional view of a preferred embodiment of thespinner shoe where only one spinner element is placed in the heel of ashoe.

FIG. 3 shows a preferred embodiment of the logic and control circuitthat controls the spinner and lighting elements.

FIG. 4 shows a preferred embodiment of a construction detail of thespinner shoe.

FIG. 5 a-d show some ancillary products such as a cap, pin, wristbandand belt buckle with a spinner element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an isometric view of a preferred embodiment of the spinnershoes 10 showing multiple spinner elements placed on the side, front andback of a shoe. This figure represents the different locations that thespinner can be located on a shoe. Spinners that represent the spinnersthat car used on the wheels of a car are shown as rear wheel spinner 30,and front wheel spinner 40. A spinner is also shown on the rear of theshoe 60, with another spinner 50 placed on the front top of the shoe.Most applications will have one or two spinners placed on the sides of ashoe to represent the appearance as might be seen on a vehicle such as acar. This figure shows the spinner elements placed just above the bottom20 of the shoe. This is preferred to allow the spinner to freely spinwithout being stopped by the ground when the user is walking orstanding.

FIG. 2 shows a side sectional view of a preferred embodiment of thespinner shoe 10 where only one spinner element is placed in the heel ofa shoe. This view represents a spinner shoe with just a single spinnerlocated on the side rear of a shoe, but other embodiments arecontemplated as shown in FIG. 1. This view shows the details of thespinner components. The spinner element 75 is located within an innerring 30 where lights 62, 64, 66, and 68 exist. The configuration of thespinner is shown with six spokes, a greater or lesser number of spokescan be utilized and in addition the design of a logo is contemplated.The lights enhance the visible appearance of the spinner. The lights canblink on and off, or the spinners can illuminate in sequence around thespinner in the same or opposite direction of the spinner. A threeposition switch 70 selects the direction of rotation of the spinner. Inthe center or neutral position the spinner does not turn, in the frontposition the spinner turns clockwise to simulate movement on the ground.In the back position the spinner turns counter-clockwise to simulate thewheel spinning in reverse.

A sensor 80 is located within the shoe to allow operation of the spinnershoes. One or more sensors 82 and 84 are placed to sense foot pressurefor standing and walking. It is contemplated that the sensors in thebottom of the shoe detect the speed that the user is walking and cantranslate the data into rotational speed of the spinners. It is furthercontemplated that the sensors can detect how the person is standing, andif the user is standing on their heel, only the rear spinner will turn.If the user is standing on their toes, only the front spinner will turn.Various other combinations of spinning are contemplated.

FIG. 3 shows a preferred embodiment of the logic and control circuitthat controls the spinner and lighting elements. FIG. 4 shows apreferred embodiment of a construction detail of the spinner shoeaccording to the logic and control circuit from FIG. 3. A battery orpower source 90 provides power to the controller 100. In onecontemplated embodiment the controller is eliminated and the battery isconnected to a switch in the bottom of the shoe that turns the spinnermotor on when sufficient pressure is detected. The embodiment shown inthis figure shows an elaborate configuration according to the preferredembodiment. The controller received information from the directionalswitch 70. The directional switch can be set to for clockwise,counter-clockwise, or no rotation of the spinner. A foot sensor 80detects the presence of a foot located inside the shoe. This preventsthe spinner from turning when it is not on a user and conserves batterypower. Walking or motion sensors 82 and 84 are located in the bottom orwithin the shoe to detect pressure on the bottom of the shoe that isassociated with walking. The information from the sensors is used todetermine the speed and direction that a person is walking. Thecontroller operates a drive motor 78 that turns the spinner wheel 75.The drive motor is capable of turning the spinner in either direction.In FIG. 4 the drive motor 78 is shown with a worm gear driving a gear onthe spinner 75. In another contemplated embodiment the spinner isrotated with electromagnets placed under the spinner wheel. Theelectromagnets are energized in sequence to rotate the spinner in eitherdirection.

Four lights 62, 64, 66 and 68 are connected 61 to the controller. Theselights can be LED or other type of lights and are illuminated to enhancethe appearance of the spinner. In another contemplated embodiment as fewas three lights are used with light pipes or lenses to simulaterotational motion of the spinners. The lights illuminate in sequence inthe spinner wheel portion of the shoe. In this contemplated embodimentthe motor and drive mechanism is not required because the lights providesimilar rotational appearance.

Each spinner can operate independently with separate power sources andcontrollers. This allows the direction of each spinner to theindependently selected. In another contemplated embodiment the spinnerscan all be operated with a single controller and they can all move insequence together or in an alternating sequence.

FIG. 5 a-d show some ancillary products such as a cap, pin, wristbandand belt buckle with a spinner element. In FIG. 5 a two spinners 210 and220 are shown on the brim and front of the cap 200. The spinners in thisfigure say “Go Team!”, but other sayings as well as slogan, company orteam logo's are contemplated that can spin, turn and or illuminate arecontemplated. The cap includes many of the same sensors and switches asare utilized in the shoe spinners to set the direction and to ensurethat the spinner does not turn when it is not on the head of a person.

FIG. 5 b shows the spinner configured as a pin that can be worn. The pin230 shows the spinner element 240 and the lighting components 232. FIG.5 c shows a watch or wristband 250 with the spinner element. Thisconfiguration of spinner shows a three spoke design. FIG. 5 d shows abelt buckle configured with a spinner 280 located in the belt buckle270. The spinner element in this figure has illumination lights 290 witha four pointed start spinner element. While four ancillary embodimentsare shown and described others are contemplated that incorporate thetechnology described.

Thus, specific embodiments of spinner shoes have been disclosed. Itshould be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many moremodifications besides those described are possible without departingfrom the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter,therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appendedclaims.

1. Shoe with spinner comprising: an article of footwear with a sole andan upper wherein the upper includes at least one electrically rotatablespinner element and at least one lighting element configured to rotateand illuminate based upon information from at least one sensor placedwithin the footwear.
 2. The shoe with spinner according to claim 1wherein the electrically rotatable spinner can rotate in clockwise andor counter-clockwise direction.
 3. The shoe with spinner according toclaim 1 wherein the at least one lighting element is located on theexterior of the spinner element.
 4. The shoe with spinner according toclaim 1 wherein the at least one lighting element is located on theexterior of the spinner element.
 5. The shoe with spinner according toclaim 1 wherein the at least one sensor includes sensing the presence ofthe shoe being on a user, pressure being placed on the bottom of theshoe, walking, or a switch that selects the direction of rotation of thespinner.
 6. The shoe with spinner according to claim 5 in which data ofthe pressure being placed on the bottom of the shoe controls the speedand or direction of rotation of the spinner element.
 7. The shoe withspinner according to claim 1 wherein if multiple spinner elements areutilized, each spinner element can each be independently controlled forrotational direction.
 8. Shoe with spinner comprising: an article offootwear with a sole and an upper wherein the upper includes at leastone rotatable spinner element placed on the exterior surface of thefootwear, and sensors located within the footwear control the rotationaldirection of the spinner element.
 9. The shoe with spinner according toclaim 8 wherein the rotatable spinner can rotate in clockwise and orcounter-clockwise direction.
 10. The shoe with spinner according toclaim 8 that further includes at least one lighting element is locatedon the footwear.
 11. The shoe with spinner according to claim 8 whereinthe sensor includes sensing the presence of the shoe being on a user,pressure being placed on the bottom of the shoe, walking, or a switchthat selects the direction of rotation of the spinner.
 12. The shoe withspinner according to claim 11 in which data from pressure being placedon the bottom of the shoe controls the speed and or direction ofrotation of the spinner element.
 13. The shoe with spinner according toclaim 8 wherein if multiple spinner elements are utilized, each spinnerelement can each be independently controlled for rotational direction.14. The shoe with spinner according to claim 8 that further includes ahat with a spinner element located within the hat that spins when thehat is worn.
 15. Shoe with spinner comprising: an article of footwearwith a sole and an upper wherein the upper includes at least three lightemitting elements that can be illuminated to simulate movement on theshoe.
 16. The shoe with spinner according to claim 15 wherein the atleast three lighting elements can simulate rotational motion of a wheel.17. The shoe with spinner according to claim 15 wherein the simulatedrotational motion of a wheel simulates rotation in clockwise and orcounter-clockwise direction.
 18. The shoe with spinner according toclaim 15 wherein the at least three light emitting elements simulatesspokes that illuminate from the center of the spinner to the edge of thespinner.
 19. The shoe with spinner according to claim 15 that furtherincludes at least one sensor that detects the presence of the shoe beingon a user, and or pressure being placed on the bottom of the shoe. 20.The shoe with spinner according to claim 19 in which data of thepressure being placed on the bottom of the shoe controls the speed andor directional appearance of the light emitting elements.